Peter Sagan of Cannondale has consolidated his lead in the Tour of Oman, taking his second successive stage win with Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing second and RadioShack-Nissan's Tony Gallopin third as the Slovak distanced them in the finale. Saxo-Tinkoff's Alberto Contador and Marco Marcato of Vacansoleil-DCM rounded out the top five.

Going into the final five kilometres to the finish at to Wadi Dayqah Dam, Orica-GreenEdge's Brett Lancaster launched an attack and managed to build a few seconds' advantage on the peloton, but he was swiftly brought back with Team Sky leading the chase.

With some short but sharp climbs in the tail end of the stage, riders dropped and not contesting the finale included Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky and Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Tom Boonen.

Earlier on the 190km stage from Nakhal Fort, four riders got away in a fast start to the day's racing including serial escapee Bobbie Traksel of Champion Systems, in the break for the third day in a row.

He was dropped ahead of the mid-point of the stage, but only after extending his lead in the combativity classification, which aggregates points gained on KOM climbs and intermediate sprints.

For the third day in a row, a rider from the composite Japan team was the last man from the brak to be to be caught, today's being Yusuke Hatanaka.

You can find our guide to the race, including maps and profiles of the remaining stages, here.